SUSPECT CHARGED WITH MURDER IN SE SHOOTING SPREE

By Linda Wheeler and Victoria DawsonOctober 12, 1987

District police arrested and charged a 23-year-old Oxon Hill man with first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon after a shooting rampage in Southeast Washington killed one man and wounded two yesterday morning, a police official said.

The man, identified as Ian James Blair of 105 E. Balmoral Dr., apparently fired shots from the window as he drove near the Prince George's County border in his Datsun 210, hitting victims in three locations and shooting at several houses, police said.

Police were unable to establish a motive last night in the shootings and said there were no links among the victims. "I think the whole thing is just random," a police source said.

Blair was arrested after 7:30 a.m. when his car crashed into a utility pole near Southern Avenue and Naylor Road SE after a chase, said Assistant Police Chief Isaac Fulwood Jr. Blair was being treated at D.C. General Hospital with head injuries received in the crash.

Police said they recovered a handgun from the car.

James Montgomery, 38, 1922 Savannah St. SE was taken to D.C. General, where he was pronounced dead with multiple gunshot wounds. Matthew Pressley, 28, whose address was unknown, was listed in serious condition with gunshot wounds to the lower abdomen and right forearm.

Another victim, 37-year-old Edward Gray whose address also was unknown, was listed in serious condition with a chest wound at Greater Southeast Community Hospital.

Police said Montgomery was fatally shot in the 3700 block of Fourth Street SE. The other shootings occurred, within a quarter mile, in the 4700 block of South Capitol Street SE and the intersection of Barnaby Street and Southern Avenue SE.

"We don't know if it was drug-related," Fulwood said. "We are trying to piece it together.

"After the the 7th District got several radio runs for shootings, the watch commander put people in the area to watch for a foreign-made car with Virginia tags."

According to neighbors, Ian Blair had moved out of his parents' Oxon Hill home but had recently returned. One neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said that Blair "never smiled."

Blair's father, Richard Blair, declined to confirm or comment on the assault, saying only that "he's a young man who did well with his college courses" and that "this is a totally undisturbed boy we are talking about." Staff writer Carlos Sanchez contributed to this report.